


fever break

by carnivorousBelvedere



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Human/Troll Society (Homestuck), Idiots in Love, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Meeting the Family, Omega!Dave, Rutting, alpha!Karkat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2020-06-29 06:09:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19824136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carnivorousBelvedere/pseuds/carnivorousBelvedere
Summary: Dave wants Karkat to help him with his heat. Karkat likes Dave.You’d think it would be simple.(Karkat refuses to believe Dave actually wants him as a heatmate until he really, really can’t anymore.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [wilder than lions, louder than sound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12773625) by [ruthlesslistener](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruthlesslistener/pseuds/ruthlesslistener). 



> This is a sort-of prequel to the awesome abo fic [wilder than lions, louder than sound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12773625/chapters/29145360) by ruthlesslistener, it’s literally the best abo fic ever go read it immediately if you haven’t  
> The fic is mainly DirkJake with extremely background davekat and this is my take on how those two got together in this universe!

**KARKAT**

The pack Dave belongs to is terrifying. One wrong move with him and you’re sure they’d gut you and put your head on a stick.

You would never, ever hurt Dave though. You can’t even fathom it. The thought of Dave being hurt by anyone makes your blood boil. 

And that’s the thing, beyond just being a considerate individual your feelings have gone further than that. You’re not feeling like how any typical alpha would for him. 

It’s like you want to be _his_ alpha in particular. Every time you think about it you put your face in your hands like you want to scream into them. Sometimes you actually do. 

It’s just. He’s just. He’s so funny even was he’s being irritating, but he has his quiet moments where you realize he’s actually sweet, and you think he’s unfairly handsome, so of course you were always going to want him. He’s also mess, but you can’t tell unless you get to know him, so of course you were always going to want to take care of him, too. 

Even when the scent blockers neutralize his omega pheromones you still think he smells amazing. 

But Dave will never want you, and you don’t deserve him, either.

He could do so much better than you.

Knowing this still doesn’t stop you from staring at him out of the corner of your eye while he works away on some graphics, the two of you peaceful in each other’s company besides the brief interludes of conversation that include a lot of poking at each other’s livelihoods. It has waxed and waned over the afternoon.

“Karkat, remind me to never work with business people ever again, this person has asked me to redo their logo like six times now,” Dave mutters to you from his workstation. “‘Oh, the circle’s not right’, or ‘Make this cerulean’. Maybe next time don’t ask for a giant mosaic. Also, you don’t even know what color cerulean really is, Pam.” 

“Aren’t they like ninety percent of your workload, it sounds like you screwed yourself.” 

“Haha, fuck off. At least I’m not gonna be stuck writing shitty code for the rest of the week.”

“Hey this is good shit I’m slaving over here.”

“Yeah and I know it’s good because Sollux wrote it and not you,” Dave quips. 

You just snort and grin to yourself, letting Dave enjoy the actually pretty good burn without comment. 

You love these quiet afternoons working alongside Dave. Being allowed and enveloped in his space and scent is a privilege you know few are allowed. 

He speaks after a few long minutes of silence, and when he does it’s not what you’re expecting. 

“So uh. It’s heat season.”

Definitely a swing of topic. “Yeah, it sure as fuck is that time of year.” It’s got you on high-alert for any distressed omega nearby. You wouldn’t straight up admit it but you just want to take care of everyone, do anything to make them happy, though distinctly the omega you happen to be hanging out with, the omega you definitely aren’t pack with, and that definitely isn’t interested in you. You don’t glance up from your computer to look at him this time. 

“Right. So. Speaking of that. I was uh. I was wondering if…” 

Now you turn to raise an eyebrow at him, confused by the sudden change in his tone. He looks so… nervous. It doesn’t even look like he’s working anymore. 

“Look, is it about the rest of the project with Sollux? We have it covered if you need to take off for a bit. I know you’ll be back to complaining in my ear about literally every pixel you have ever created soon enough. Wait, that was shitty of me to assume, fuck.” You were all on a team working on a game, with Dave mostly doing the design side of things, and his impending leave was something he’d shied away from talking about. His week during season in which he would have to go off suppressants was nearing. It seems like he was using this time to actually discuss it with you, he must have been working up to if for several minutes now. For all the bluster you really do care for him, and you’re pretty sure he knows it. For now, he’s definitely walking on eggshells with you about _something_ related to it all. 

Dave’s face twists. “No! I mean. I mean. Of course I’m gonna have to take time off like, I’m not just gonna show up to work with you guys while battling my born drive to shack up with someone that’s like textbook asshole for everyone, and manipulative as fuck like seriously. No it’s fine I’m just wondering if like. Okay so like everyone knows going through heat alone sucks right I mean everyone knows that otherwise we all wouldn’t be having this biological imperative phenomenon in the first place or like I guess it wouldn’t be a thing at all. Honestly shit sucks like I’m trying to keep it PG but you know I thought it would be better after the first time but nope here we are, my nth heat since this all started. I guess sometimes it’s nice to have someone around like you who doesn’t ever bring it up uh, that, in fact you usually avoid the whole thing altogether which is kind of nice. Except for today but I kind of brought it up in the first place. So you like always have your shit together and this is really presumptuous of me because of all that but I was maybe wondering if this time you could….” 

He stares at you for a long time and you stare back, absolutely lost to where his point was going. 

“Maybe…… help………. me?”

You blink at him. “With…. your heat?”

The rush of blood to his face is adorable. You would never tell him that though, you’re sure he’d snap at you. 

“Yeah,” he says in a dead whisper. 

Dave wants your help? It’s laughable that he would choose _you_ to help him out. He could do so much better than a mutant of a different species like you, so there’s no possible way he means he wants you to _share_ his heat with him. 

He must want you to take care of him. He really must trust you that much. And you’ll be thankful enough for that, because anything Dave will ever give you will gladly accept, even when he inevitably finds someone else, someone who is so much better than you- a better alpha, a better mate, and a human- someone who he should actually want to share his heats with. 

There’s just no fathomable way Dave would ever choose you for a mate. 

You find yourself at this conclusion because it’s not unheard of for alphas to be nearby for heats. Some unmated omegas like a pack alpha around to help keep them safe from others when in heat, that’s the whole point of pack. Well, not completely, but it is a big part of it. However, you’re not part of Dave’s pack. It’s still flattering enough that Dave would choose you to even watch over him, although pure proximity to him in heat will make you want to take care of him no matter what. It also means he trusts you enough to not take advantage of him, even in the throes of heat when he’s begging for someone. 

Why does he smell so anxious? He shouldn’t have felt nervous asking you about this, he knows you well enough by now to know that you’d be more than happy to help keep him comfortable during an overall very uncomfortable time. Maybe it’s because it isn’t a conventional request. You do know Dave to be a rather private person, though. He must be working hard to open up to you about this and trust you to handle it with dignity, being around him in a vulnerable time. 

You’ll take the best possible care of him that you can, even if it hurts you. Even if the scent of Dave, the knowledge that he’s in heat near you, is almost too much to handle emotionally, enough to drive your bulge insane, you’ll be there for him however he needs you. He’ll be hydrated, fed and protected better than any other uncoupled omega in heat. 

“You want me to help you with your heat?“ You say, clarifying for yourself before your mind really starts to run away with what you’ll do for him. 

“Y-yes,” he stammers. 

You sit up as it really sets in. “Oh. Of course I’ll do that. Yeah. Whatever you need.” 

“R-Really?” He says, and you wish so badly you could see his eyes right now. You so rarely see his composure break like this. He must really really hate talking about this kind of stuff.

“Yeah of course, Dave. I’ll... make sure you’re taken care of.” Even if you can’t be his alpha, you’ll be the best you can be for him. You feel like usually you’d say something like, ‘Don’t have to make it a big fucking deal’ but none of your usual commentary is coming to mind right now. 

“Oh,” he says in the littlest voice you’ve ever heard from him, and something in it tears your breath away. 

Wait, you didn’t overstep did you? 

“Sorry, god, I don’t mean that like, I know you hate it when alphas get too much on their shitty ass born impulses I just mean you’ll be hydrated and protected and—“

“It’s fine,” he whispers again, still staring at you. 

He swallows and god you’re so pathetic, your eyes dip down to his neck, skin so close to his glands that you will never, ever touch. Usually you’d give him a hard time for interrupting the working time but damn if this isn’t maybe the most intimate conversation you’ve ever had with your _crush_ and as much as your relationship is playful most of the time, you wouldn’t dare ruin this moment. 

You’re not pack with Dave, but he trusts you enough to be part of his. 

You might be flying. It’s amazing and terrible. 

When you eventually have to leave, you’re not sure what to do about why he looks so sad.

“Is everything okay?” You ask, computer bag slung over your shoulder. 

He shakes his head quickly. “No, yes, I mean… I just thought…” 

You notice yourself leaning toward him, near physically restraining yourself from stepping even closer, into his personal space that you are definitely not allowed into. It’s a yearning to breathe in his scent to get more of an understanding about what could be wrong. He looks sad, and you want to fix that, but it’s not your place. 

His expression is bewildered as he says it. “Er, never mind.” He steps backwards and away from you. “I’ll hit you up later.” 

You leave him, though the back of your mind itches with anxiety that you just missed something and already messed things up. You only relax again, as much as you’re capable of relaxing, when he messages you for something work related, and the rare smiley he includes at the end is the thing that pathetically makes your entire week. 

-

“Why don’t you just try courting him instead of maybe telling me you’re thinking about courting him every fucking day,” Sollux helpfully offers later that week when he’s over for some gaming. “Don’t be an idiot about this, you have time.” 

You look away. “Most humans don’t want a troll for a mate and vice-fucking-versa, dumbass. Even a beta like you knows that. Can’t… Dave probably wants something I can’t give him.”

Sollux shrugs. “I dunno. I don’t think so. I know you’re too much of a coward to actually try courting him, though.”

“Oh, fuck off. Like you’re such an expert in troll-human courting dynamics.”

“All I’m saying is that it does happen. You’re not fucking blind, even though sometimes I honestly wonder if you might be.” 

“Great, well, we all know cosmically aligned shit like that never happens to me. Dave doesn’t want anything like that with me, he just wants me to watch over him because, well honestly I don’t know, especially when he has a perfectly good pack family between Dirk and Rose and all of them but I guess maybe it has something to do with me being an obnoxious asshole who isn’t afraid to get in someone’s face pretty much constantly.”

“Dear fucking god do you ever even hear the vapid shit you say sometimes. Those were some of the coldest takes I have ever heard.” 

“Fuck you.”

“No, you could be fucking Dave, your dear sweet precious omega, but let’s revisit--”

You cut him off with a sharp growl. “Don’t talk about him like that.”

He holds up his hands and faces you, a controller held loosely in one of them. “Okay, fuck, fine, sorry. But damn you have it so bad for him. I wasn’t gonna say it but like, dude, you’re pathetic.”

“ _I know_ ,” you sigh, but you both turn back to the game and drop the topic. 

For the days leading up to when his heat was expected to hit you go back and forth on whether you should message him about it, filled with anxiety, only to end up not saying little to nothing at all because you’re a selfish coward and an overall sad excuse for an alpha. He was probably stressed enough without you bothering him, but that didn’t stop you from considering all the things like etiquette or your alpha responsibilities to him. You didn’t want to say or do anything to jeopardize this, and knowing yourself, you would say something idiotic and fuck it all up in seconds, like pouring gasoline over all your hopes and dreams and lighting the matchstick yourself. 

You keep your conversations to minute details, things to let him know in small ways that you’ll be attentive to his needs, even if those needs don’t really involve you all that much. 

CG: TACOS OR CLUCKBEASTZYGOTE-PLANT ‘PARM’  
CG: I KNOW YOU ONLY EAT LIKE FIVE THINGS BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACTUALLY HEALTHY OPTIONS THAT WON’T BE COMPLETELY UNPALATABLE.  
TG: is that troll speak for eggplant parm  
TG: doesnt matter tacos all day erryday  
TG: you really know how to woo a guy wow man  
CG: VERY FUNNY.  
TG: you sure youre even gonna have time for all that food gathering  
CG: ?  
CG: UH, YEAH?  
TG: excuse me while i go fan myself  
TG: this alpha has the works

He’s just teasing like always but it sure has you blushing this time. You’re surprised he’s handling all this in such a blasé manner but maybe that’s a good thing? You wish it took some of the edge off but instead it just makes your nerves worse. 

CG: OH FUCK OFF, IT’S PRACTICALLY IN THE JOB DESCRIPTION.  
TG: i guess youre right about that  
TG: and i am reaping the rewards  
CG: YEAH, LUCKY YOU.

The day finally comes. Dave messages you. You’d honestly thought he would come to change his mind. 

TG: hey  
TG: theres like no easy way to go about saying this  
TG: but its time  
TG: you uh  
TG: you still wanna do this right  
TG: i know that its stupid to ask that because weve been talking about it for days now  
TG: and maybe its just the stupid hormones messing with my brain but ive just kind of been getting the feel i dragged you into this whole thing and didn’t give you a convenient exit row seat in case you needed to eject yourself from the nonstop flight straight to biological imperative hell  
TG: and maybe i just assumed a bunch of shit and youre just too good to actually call me out on it because youre you

Of course you of all people found a way to make him doubt his choice in you. 

CG: THAT’S NOT EVEN A QUESTION. OF COURSE I WANT TO DO THIS.  
CG: IT’S ALL I’VE BEEN ABLE TO THINK ABOUT.

The seconds between his next reply feel like years. There’s no way you didn’t cross a line saying that, but you felt so badly it needed to be said. You made Dave anxious and you wanted him to know no matter what you were one hundred percent attentive to him and only him for this. You could even argue that part didn’t have anything to do with your feelings, just the promise you made to Dave when you agreed to do this for him. 

TG: oh good  
TG: because same 

Yeah well, of course he was busy thinking about his impending heat. You almost snort as his sarcastic levity. Leave it to Dave to joke at a time like this. 

But in all seriousness, you need to get a move on it. Dave will be in heat soon and you have to get to him before it really starts. Just considering leaving him unprotected makes you feel straight up belligerent.

Your heart rate sharply increases as it sets in. Oh, fuck. This means that in minutes you’ll be in the same space as Dave while he’s in heat. 

There is little else you can think about. 

You drop everything, having already told Sollux to take care of things for you in case this happened, and as your steadfast beta he’d agreed, even if somewhat reluctantly at first. You would just owe him a big one later.

CG: I’M ON MY WAY. 

Dave opens the door. 

His home usually smells rather neutral, but this time the scent of his rising heat kicks you in the chest like a bucking bronco, forcing you alert. You act on instinct first, rushing forward and shutting the door behind you quickly. The troll side of you is already beginning to make noises the human ear can barely discern, comforting sounds meant to be used for a mate in distress. You start before even really assessing his heatscent- uncertainty, need, desperation, all mixed with the sagey leather spice he normally smells like when you are lucky enough to be allowed close. 

Dave doesn’t seem to notice the soothing vibrations you are already making, and you’re glad for it. You are gravely overstepping but you don’t think you could control this even if you tried. It would be mortifying if he did know what you were doing. 

But damn, if he only he did know how he was assaulting you instincts right now. Yes, you know logically that heats after the first one aren’t as intense- not that the heat waves don’t suck but they are shorter and there’s generally more coherency between them- but your brain can’t tell the difference. 

It’s riling you up, the bioequivalence of his heat-pheromones that you have heretofore not been acquainted with singing to your inner alpha, where your longing to have Dave and belong to him in turn presses up messily against natural instinct. 

Wow, and from the sound of _that_ it’s already melting down the usual wall that you keep up all the time to keep from revealing the absolutely, helplessly caring being you are under it all. If Dave knew how much you cared, how much you really really cared, how much his asking you to do this meant to you, you’re not sure what you would do. 

It’s fitting, seeing as Dave is now vulnerable to you, so in payment you are vulnerable in his presence. The only thing you can do is fight to keep it all under control. It doesn’t matter if it sucks for you, you signed up for this. 

You lock the door and turn to look at him, finally noticing that he’s not wearing his glasses and his face is red as could be. He’s shaking. His hands, opening and closing into fists, taper off into tremors. He must be wanting to jump out of his bones right now, you’ve got to get him somewhere dark and safe where he can comfortably ride this wave out. Your idiotic ass can fuck off for arriving too late, he’s already in the thick of it and _you weren’t there for him._

The spike of self-loathing takes a backseat as you gaze at the person who doesn’t know he holds all your affection. 

“Hey,” he says, his voice slightly hoarse, and oh, fuck, there it is- all you want to do is kiss him and hold him and take care of him, no matter what that requires of you. 

That part isn’t just his heat driving you to want it, either. Those are just your real as hell fucking feelings for Dave, the feelings you have to keep under control no matter what. 

The next few days are going to be rough. 

“Hi, uh,” you respond stupidly, staring back at him. You’re not often caught at such a loss for words, but Dave is standing in front of you without his shades, in heat and no barriers between you and he is so beautiful and you’re here with him because he _trusts_ you. You would call to attention his wildly uninhibited scent, which is tempting you in a thousand ways, but you don’t even know if he’s aware so you wouldn’t even think of it. He asked you to be here with the understanding that you would be able to handle it and you sure as fucking hell will. 

As mere seconds pass, his scent is working its way into your skin, digging deep into your forebrain and making you want to act. It’s up to you to be stronger than that, to be what Dave needs. 

He smells like need. Dave needs you. 

Just not in the way you had hoped. 

You talk quickly so you can quickly get him somewhere better than the wide space of his entryway and kitchen. From what you can see his bedroom is where he’s chosen to nest down.

“I. Uh. I’m here, you can go pass the hell out or do whatever you need now.” Surrounded by his heat scent, your voice loses it’s usual harsh tone, but apparently that still doesn’t stop you from making tactless statements like that. _Be better_. “I’ll watch over you. Or I guess here, since I’m not really actually watching over you. Whenever you get hungry or thirsty just let me know. I will come check on you regularly but I promise to always knock because unlike some people I actually have some goddamn manners.” You’ll do everything you can to avoid catching him in a compromising situation. 

You had memorized a list of things you would do for Dave to make this as painless a process as possible, but as you thought about it all you could think about was how terribly intimate what you were doing was, and how it was going to kill you but you knew you would do it anyways. 

“I did actually bring food,” you continue, lifting one of the large reusable grocery bags you’re holding. “So you can actually have a few healthy meals for once instead of the fast food garbage you eat near constantly, holy shit I forgot how you can seriously eat Taco Bell like no one’s business, and you’ll need actual nutrition to get through this. Though I know you hate grub-everything except the sauce which I quote from you ‘is better than sriracha aoli and that’s really saying something bro’ so I didn’t bring any of that. I promise I’ll clean up everything after, this house will be better kept than your slobby ass, so you won’t have to worry about cleaning anything later. I also have electrolyte tabs and probably a miserable amount of ice cream, too, you’re goddamn welcome.”

Dave’s eyebrows furrow as you reach the end. “I… What?” He looks confused.

He’s jittery, too, looking like he’s bouncing on the balls of his feet. You can’t let him stay out here much longer, he’ll surely get panicky and you would never forgive yourself if you let that happen. It’s a wonder he hasn’t already.

You frown as you gaze at him, gauging his expression and current state. Maybe he’s already deeper in heat sickness than you’d thought. He sure smells like he could be, with the way he’s putting out direct ‘please fuck me, Karkat’ pheromones that are driving you slowly insane. The longer you spend in his direct vicinity with him smelling like this, the closer you get to losing control of your bulge. “Okay, I know I came a little late so it’s probably already starting but just to make sure I got this right so Dirk doesn’t materialize in the corner to chop my head off, you wanted me to help take care of you for your heat, right?” 

“Help take care…?” He says, still blinking at you with confusion. The heat must be making him brain foggy. “Yeah, but…” He trails off, shivering once and running a nervous hand through his hair. You wonder what it would feel like to touch it yourself, how your hand would feel wrapped around the back of his head as you pulled his mouth up to-- 

_Stop_.

Instead of running away with the daydreams spurred on by Dave’s unrestrained scent, you go to set the bags on the nutrition block counter and look at him again. He’s still in the same spot, staring at you. “Right. Because I can leave if you don’t want me here. Like fuck, if I just completely fucked it up please just tell me.” You try not to look so tense, preparing for him to turn you away, but hope he won’t because you hate the idea of leaving him alone and unprotected, unworthy as you are for the job. He’s probably anxious enough, and you hate the idea of possibly adding to it even more. 

You could have gone about this better. You really, really could have. 

“Leave? What, no, Karkat what the hell, of course I don’t want you to leave.” He says this as he steps closer to you but looks stricken, wiping a hand down his face as he talks. “Karkat, I…. Fuck. I thought, uh. Okay I’m confused. I sort of thought when we talked we were on the same page about this. I guess now maybe that isn’t the case. In your defense ‘help me’ kind of has a lot of definitions but I never thought you would land at that one, I’m really diving into my knowledge of pack dynamics here which you know I give like less than two fucks about but I think the definition of ‘helping an omega with heat’ you’re using is for like blood family or pack alphas, which we aren’t, so I guess that only leaves one other definition, which like fuck me or I guess actually not fuck me if you aren’t into it. All I’m saying is that yeah, I want you to do this but not if you aren’t one hundred percent into this whole heat-mate thing and I’m just the dumbass who dragged you into it because you’re you and also an alpha and you wouldn’t say no just because I asked for it but I don’t even know if I care right now becuase Karkat I need you so fucking badly.” He steps toward you and shudders, making a high pitched whine. 

Wait, what? Did he say heat-mate? _’I need you’_? His anxiety is wafting in your direction, making you want to take him into your arms and tell him everything is okay, that you’ll make everything okay, but you can’t just go over there and do that. It’s taking all your willpower not to. 

You peer curiously at him and then shake your head “Dave you know as much as I love your rambling that made practically no sense, you’re all heat muddled, so if you want me to leave I can, just say so, you don’t have to worry about sparing my feelings here. You’re the most important person in this room.” You’re not usually so acquiescent but his proximity has leaked any and all antagonism out of you. He would be so right to hold over your head that you love his rambles after this, he’s turned you to a pile of yielding mush. 

“I...” Dave says, trailing off until he shakes his head and continues. “Okay, for the record, not in heat yet, and no, I don’t want you to leave. I want you to do the opposite of leave, actually. I really really want you to stay, because I fucking honestly wanted to…. _Share_. My heat. With you. Man do I really have to spell this shit out for you? I was kind of hoping you’d spend this week fucking my brains out.” 

Oh. 

Wow. 

Those words coming out of his mouth are so tempting, you want them to be real so badly, but there’s no way Dave means what he’s saying. 

However, words and your brain still aren’t a thing. “... _What_.”

“... Yeah. Okay. Spelling it out for you. I was kind of hoping you would fuck me through this and maybe then some.” 

Okay. Wow. Dave just said that. 

He must just be heatsick and desperate. You’d be doing him a disservice if you were to actually share his heat with him, not when he couldn’t properly consent, and not when logically it makes no sense that he would want anything to do with you. 

Yes, you would do anything to please him, _anything_ , but you cannot believe that _you_ would actually please him. Fucking him through a heat wave would be monstrous thing to do, you imagine he would come out the other side full of clarity and horror at what you had done, the trust you had worked so hard to gain smashed to pieces as he realizes how selfishly you took advantage of him. 

God, he really must be out of his mind if he wants you of all people right now. 

You steel yourself for this. He’s probably going to be so embarrassed and apologetic later, but for now you’re going to do the right thing by him, and the right thing is turning him away. He’ll be thankful later.

Even if it hurts you.

“Oh, Dave,” you say. “You’re heatsick, you don’t actually mean that. It’s playing tricks on your mind. ” 

Dave gapes at you. He makes another high pitched whine, a cry that you now realize is for the mate that you can’t be, before he speaks again. “No, I really did mean that. I want you to fuck me until it’s over. I am five minutes to losing my mind and your bulge is the only thing that’s going to make it better.” 

_Fuck_. “Dave, please. You’re not yourself right now and I don’t want you doing something you’ll regret later. Now go lay down, I’m gonna make dinner. I’ll check on you in two hours, okay? You should be a little less inclined to spew bullshit then.” You wonder how he’s so coherent even if he’s in the middle of a haze. Damn yourself for arriving too late. 

He stares at you, making that pained noise again, and you wonder if he even knows he’s making it. 

Not going to Dave and pulling him into your arms and kissing him is torture. 

“Dave... I said I was going to take care of you and I meant it. I will go put you in bed like a little wiggler if I have to.” Holy shit, that came out so wrong. Now it’s your own mutant blood rushing to your cheeks. 

He makes a sharp indignant whine as he frowns, looking so hurt you can barely stand it. Fuck, you hated doing that. You hurt him. You’re the shitty person that did that. 

He opens his mouth to protest once more but you just reach out and spin him around by the shoulders in the direction of his room, struggling to hold your breath so you don’t get even more of the beckoning musky scent burning its way through your sanity. 

“Go lay down, Dave. When it’s over we can talk, okay?” He’s so warm under your hands and gasps as you touch him, making more subsonic calming vibrations leaving your throat. He whines again. You immediately feel guilty for entering his space without permission, but give him a gentle push and let go. 

He looks over his shoulder to frown at you.

You growl. Troll alpha growls are not quite like humans, but it is quite similar in the intention. You don’t exactly take pleasure in doing this to him, but it is what a sober Dave would have wanted you to do, right? He whines again, his body shivering violently, and fuck he sounds so _sad_ but still relents and goes to his room, shutting the door. 

As he disappears, along with the worst (best) of his addictive scent, you sigh and put your face in your hands and groan. 

You can do this. You have to do this. You can’t let yourself get excited or hopeful that Dave just said he wanted you as his _heatmate_. It didn’t mean anything. He didn’t mean it. Fuck, you want him so badly though. Just thinking the words ‘heat mate’ squeezes your chest, but you know he was just heat hazy and latching on to the first being he saw, which just so happened to be you. You can’t take anything he says at face value. 

His scent sure as hell made you feel like something else though. Even now your logical mind is struggling to repress the baser parts of your brain so that you don’t go and do anything stupid. You’ll be spending a week with your bulge in hand after this, rutting off your desire for Dave who has no clue what he did to you and who you will never tell. 

You turn back to the nutrition block and get started with putting away food, making a point to not think about what Dave could be doing behind that door. 

You mostly fail, because you’re weak and pathetic and yeah, that’s just one of the many reasons why you will never deserve Dave Strider. 

-

**DAVE**

The worst thing about heats is that they make you so stupidly emotional. 

_This is uncool, so very very uncool._

Shortly after getting unclothed and falling back into your nest of a bed, the first wave hits. How did Karkat miss you were in preheat?

That might actually have been a bit your fault, you had been olfactorily assaulting him with your thirst for him, unrepentantly, excitedly anticipating the moment he would swoop in and pick you up and carry you to the den you would share together, where he’d stuff you with his bulge and make everything better. He thought you were already in heat, au contraire you were just horny as fuck for that troll and only that troll. 

Just seeing him appear, despite your increasingly frenzied drive to find somewhere safe and warm, had not only calmed you but also made you start slicking instantly. 

You’d thought that instead of having to reach for the stupid toys you’d have an alpha, one specific alpha, on top of you, but instead you’re doing what you’ve done every year since your first heat- grabbing a toy and hoping it will be enough. 

No heat will ever be as bad as your presentation, but it’s still pretty fucking miserable. 

The toy you like the most is actually the one Roxy got you. It’s practically a rite of passage to get one after omega presentation but that still didn’t make it any less embarrassing when she handed it to you with a giant hug and a promise that ‘it was the best one on the market, everyone says so’. 

You would never admit it to her but she was right, it _is_ really good. The inflatable knot and self-thrusting qualities are really helpful when it’s day three and you’re just tired to the bone. 

Or too tired to bone yourself?

Though you’re quite sure nothing could replace the real deal of a knot inside you, stretching you full as you finally come, enveloped in the arms of someone who cares about you. 

Usually you would cry with an ache to be filled, but now you’re just full on crying because you’re sad and shaking and wishing the idiot of an alpha you have the hots for didn’t decide to be on his moral high horse for once. 

That’s what you would think, if you were being more logical. Right now, it’s a bit different. Your body craves to be filled, it’s being run by instinct and your thoughts are not exactly rational. 

The things you think are pretty damn irrational, actually. 

_Karkat doesn’t want me. My mate doesn’t want me._

You think these terribly depressing and honestly embarrassing thoughts and sob into your pillow, your chest tight with what feels like the sting of rejection. You’re alone without your mate and so empty you can’t stand it. 

Yeah, except Karkat is not your mate. 

There is absolutely nothing dignified about fucking yourself with a toy while crying into your pillow, but you have to cut yourself some slack. Everyone knows mateless heats aren’t exactly the high points in anyone’s life. They’re unpleasant for a reason, it’s mother nature kindly telling you to get fucked. Literally. For the good of your species. 

You can’t help it, you fall into the heat like slipping into a deep sleep, and your mind starts running away as the toy slowly begins abating some of the wild sex drive. You think, predictably, about Karkat. You think about how his bulge would feel, the way it would slowly grow and fill all the spaces within you before bursting with genetic material and plugging you with a knot so it can’t go anywhere. 

You think about how his fluid would feel filling you. It’s so hot to think about you can barely stand it, moaning into your pillow. You think about wrapping your legs around him, making it so that he has no choice but to come inside you, filling you to the brim with his fluid as he knots you. You wonder if he’d fuck you with the gentleness he lives his day to day life or if he’d be rough, wanting you to be thoroughly satisfied. You would go out there and jump on that bulge right now if the strength of the first wave wasn’t keeping you glued to your nest until it was over. 

Karkat is a dumbass. He knows you don’t care about procreating, you don’t get what the stupid holdup is. All you can think about is that he can raw you and neither of you has to worry about birth control. You want him so badly, and it hurts knowing he’s in the other room so close to you but not close enough, not close enough because he actually doesn’t want you. Which. 

Even in a small flash of lucidity yeah, that really sucks to think about. It _hurts_. You sob harder into the pillow and let the toy work hands-free, because you need both of your hands to muffle your cries. 

You’re alone and empty and scared and craving the touch of someone that doesn’t want you. 

You’d thought, well, you’d thought a lot of things before this. 

Despite scent blockers, heavy emotions can still leak out, and you guess Karkat has no clue that at some point he started to smell like affection so strongly around you it was hard not to jump into his lap and nuzzle him even when you were out in public, blowing all decency to the wind as you lost yourself in the only alpha you wanted as your mate.

You’d been convinced he wanted you, too. All the signs had been there. The scent of his affection with whiffs here and there of desire that left you aching for more, the way he would blush wildly when you got closer to him than the three or so feet non-pack individuals were typically allowed. 

Falling for Karkat in the first place had been a surprise. To start, the guy has one volume level. Which you actually realized you liked. You always know what he’s thinking because he isn’t afraid to tell you, and you have never gotten tired of his transparent if prickly nature. 

You never thought you would fall for an alpha, especially after what bro put you through, but that changed when the other alphas in your life that showed you what being an alpha really was about. Jake, Jane, Jade (the alpha J’s, shits hereditary you swear) and then Karkat. 

They all truly wanted to make the people around them happy, to protect them, to be sure they were well. 

Karkat cared about people more than any one of them. He would notice things about people and then remember it. As an example, he was so loud you always knew he was coming, but the one time he did sneak up on you, accidentally, he could tell you were scared. He felt terrible about it, even though you waved it off and said it was nothing. He hadn’t snuck up on you since, always sure to announce his presence in one way or another. 

It wasn’t just little observant things like that, he would bend over backwards for people, even people he didn’t like. It became obvious quickly that below that crabby exterior he was just a giant marshmallow you wanted to fuck like there was no tomorrow. 

He liked to make sure that you’d eaten or had been sure to drink water after sitting in front of a computer screen for a long time. Every time you complain of a headache he returns with water and tells you “Don’t he stupid, it’s water, it won’t fucking kill you, and who knows maybe you’ll feel better.” 

The part you forgot is that Karkat Vantas has his head up his ass pretty much constantly. 

Of course he of all people would take you asking him to take care of you as like literally care for you, even though this was just glorified babysitting. His level of unnecessary self-loathing is just that great. He doesn’t talk much about dynamics, which you also like about him, and you don’t either, but whenever it comes up he’s always sure to mention that he is probably the worst alpha to have ever existed and forever undeserving of a mate. 

He has no clue all these things are why you are hopelessly in love with him. You hadn’t told him yet about all the things that have happened to you with bro, but you wanted to. You’d been intending to for some time now. 

You also never thought you would be the type to do the whole traditional courting thing, but the idea of doing it with Karkat made the omega in you stupidly happy. Karkat had watched enough romcoms (another quirk that endeared him to you) to know about courting tradition, but when you finally worked up to making your pass at him he had no clue. 

You bought him an ergonomic keyboard, a textbook ‘practical omega courting gift’. When you gave it to him he’d said, “Oh no, not you too,” which at first made you panic that he was already being courted by someone else, but then you found out one of his packmates (his pack is huge, trolls are fucking wild) had bought him and Sollux moveable laptop stands with similar concern. You did not have the courage to tell him what the actual significance was. 

Then because your biology has no chill, he brings over food before a day of video games and you could have sworn he was trying to court you then. 

Apparently not. Karkat just does things like that for the people he cares about. He has no clue what he does to you, and apparently you’re in love with the dumbest alpha of them all. He refused to fuck you even when your body was screaming for him because he was worried you couldn’t consent, and if right now you hate him for it, you _really_ hate him for it right now actually, later you know you’ll love him all the more. 

He sent you away reeking of desperation and heat, something you’re sure ninety-nine percent of alphas wouldn’t do, while he himself smelled like adoration. Heat put your senses into overdrive, there was no way you wouldn’t be able smell it off him. 

He is the best alpha you have ever met and you intend to make sure he knows that. He’s the only person you ever want to be vulnerable around ever, because you know he’ll always be there for you. Hell, when he stepped through your door, instead of running to your room you felt at peace in his proximity, just like you always do. 

Karkat doesn’t even know the half of what’s happened to you and even then, he wouldn’t dare do something he thought might hurt you. Though ironically, he did actually hurt you by not fucking you. 

He’s an idiot but he’s your idiot. Or at least, he will be. 

Once you finally get him to fuck you. 

-

**KARKAT**

You don’t hear anything when you come to check on him over an hour later, and you worry he might be sleeping so you elect not to bother him. You can keep the food on the stove for a little longer. You are, however, worried if he’s staying hydrated enough and kick yourself for not giving him a bottle before he disappeared into his room. 

The scent of Dave in heat has not worn off at all over this time period. In fact, it’s even worse now, and you’re honestly scared that you won’t be able to keep your hands off of him when he next walks out. It has worked its way under your skin, a persistent itch you can’t scratch, and it is actively wearing down your self control. 

If you aren’t on your best game when you next see Dave, there’s no way you’ll be able to keep your bulge under control and you _cannot_ let yourself go into rut around Dave. This is why he asked you to be here, because he trusted you not to do something like that. Or if he thought it might happen, he trusted you to keep it to yourself. 

You give it another hour before knocking on the door and quickly retreating back to the kitchen so that you won’t be blasted with his heatscent again. 

When the door opens, it happens anyways. You nail yourself to your spot in the kitchen like you’re a statue. How could any alpha possibly ever stand this? You sway in your spot and struggle to gain control of your mind and body. 

When Dave steps out he’s dressed in loose, comfortable clothes. You were honestly worried he’d step out naked and you’d have a whole increased set of issues to deal with. He looks exhausted and shaky, but it seems that he’s come down a bit now. You don’t know what he did during that time but you sure as hell thought about it, even though you tried not to. 

His hair is ruffled and he doesn’t look well. In fact, he looks pretty damn sad. Fuck, he must be having a rough heat. At least you can help him with this side of things, be there for him in the only way you can. 

“Hey,” he says, and he sounds pretty lucid which is a good sign that he’s done with this wave. Though now that you think about it he did sound pretty lucid when you walked in, too. You’ll have to be wary of that, it’s like when a blackout drunk person who doesn’t look like it says ‘I’m not blackout’. 

Obviously, they’re blackout. 

“Hey. I made food,” you say stiffly, mechanically turning back to the stove to shovel some food on a plate. Your mind is currently being stretched in a thousand directions, words are getting more and more difficult as you fight against the screaming alpha inside you. 

You gesture towards the small kitchen table where there’s a glass of water and napkin and silverware already. Dave looks so flushed with heat, though you swear he wasn’t that red a second ago. He goes to sit wordlessly and you come set a plate in front of him, holding your breath as you near and retreating back a few steps as soon as it places on the table. 

You have no clue what to say. Fuck, you had no clue how awkward this would be, having never considered this part. You were so focused on being able to provide and care for him you didn’t consider the part where you’d actually have to talk to him, especially when his heat is busy fraying your every nerve ending and you might snap in half the next non-Dave being that passes by. 

He groans as he tastes the food, which is just a simple one pot chicken risotto- an easily palatable meal. “Oh god, this is really good, who taught you how to cook like this that should be illegal.” 

You flush. “You need nutrients to get through your heat without getting fucknut crazy miserable during or after.” It’s true. Everything you picked out you took into account the levels of protein, carbs and even electrolytes. 

You look up to see him staring at you. He snorts as you meet his gaze, shaking his head as he mutters something that sounds like ‘I can’t fucking believe this,’ but he keeps eating. 

“Drink more water. You’re probably dehydrated and I’m not going to let you be one of those omegas that needs a drip IV after a heat.” 

He rolls his eyes but follows your request. It does something weird to your stomach, seeing him so freely submitting to you. 

He doesn’t have to, but he is. 

When he finishes the glass you approach him and all his scent to grab the empty glass and refill it. You return it to him and set it on the table. He looks up at you, face unreadable.

“So I’m in between waves and feel pretty fucking coherent so can we maybe talk.”

Oh, shit. He remembers. 

You take a step back from the table. “About?” 

“About the fact that for whatever incomprehensible reason you don’t seem to want to smash me despite getting every other green light and frankly I’m getting too many mixed signals here.”

You splutter. Anything you can say to this is a trap. “Smash you-- Dave, don’t be ridiculous.” 

“I can tell you want to. I can smell that you want me.”

No, fuck, he knows, of course you were stupid to think you could possibly hide this from Dave when he’s heating and senses sensitive as could be. 

“So what’s stopping you, _alpha_.”

You don’t think you’ve ever heard him say that word aloud. A shudder wracks down your spine. “D-Dave, I... “ What do you even say? 

“It’s a yes or no question. Are you gonna fuck me through the rest of my heat or just keep standing there with your thumb up your ass.” 

“Oh no, Dave. Don’t do this to me. God, you’re in heat and you can’t consent and that’s the whole reason why you asked me to be here! It’s just the heat talking, making you want things you don’t actually want, like me, god, that’s ridiculous.”

Dave groans and smacks both hands at his face, rubbing them down his cheeks slowly. “Karkat, you have got to be fucking kidding me. The fact that you are sitting here, withstanding me, is the reason I want you.” 

“That’s the heat talking.” You take a few steps back and turn away from him, limbs robotic. “I’m going to go check the doors.”

“Karkat.” Dave says, sounding almost pleading. You freeze midstep. “Do you … Is it actually that you don’t want me? I mean, am I actually the one who got this wrong? Because if you don’t want me please just tell me. I thought… I don’t know. I thought maybe… maybe you did. But, hah, maybe I’m just the idiot.”

You flinch and whirl around to face him, the alpha in you aching to go to him and take all that sadness away, make Dave feel like the only person in your world that matters. “No! No no no that’s not it. Just, uh, fuck. Dave, you can do so much better than me. You know like, oh, fuck me, someone who is actually your own species?”

He looks bewildered for a second before his face turns exasperated. “Oh my god, like that’s ever fucking mattered to me!” He bursts out and puts his face in his hands, aggravatedly rubbing at his eyes with his palms. “Karkat, fuck, I can’t do this anymore.” He looks up from his hands right at you. “I’ve had a crush on you for like a whole year.”

He stands and suddenly you lose the ability to breathe.

“-And I was too much a coward to try courting you and suddenly it was heat season, and I don’t know I thought you would maybe be into it but maybe I was just reading everything between us wrong, but goddamn it I can’t do this. Maybe this is fucked up but even if you don’t like me I just, god, Karkat, I need you. I need you so badly right now. I am losing my fucking mind without you.”

You completely short circuit. Your mind flashes with a fast series of images: you kissing Dave, fucking him, holding him, biting him, being his _mate_ , and you shut it down as fast as you can. You feel your heart soaring for a single solid second as you consider the idea that _Dave likes you_ before the reality of the situation sets in.

You can’t do this. He’s not in the right mind. You promised him, promised yourself you wouldn’t do anything to him without his lucid consent, and he’s not lucid. He just wants… he just wants… someone’s _dick_ right now. He doesn’t like you, doesn’t actually want you, or your bulge, and you have to tell yourself that. You turn away. 

“Dave,” you say with a shuddering breath. Fuck, it hurts so much. You ache to touch him, fill him, feel him under you as you help ease the pain of his heat. You want him so badly, but you can’t. You can’t do this to him. It would be selfish of you, and wrong on so many levels. “You’re not in a right state of mind. I promised I would take care of you, and taking care of you means preventing you from doing something you’d regret. You can’t consent right now.”

“Oh my god. You colossal fucking dumbass. I already said that’s not what I meant when I asked you to help me with my heat! Fuck, I never thought I would be so mad at a past version of myself, pulling an OG Vantas move here… Karkat, do you have any idea what you’re doing? How crazy you’re driving me right now? You’re in my home while I’m in heat making me fucking gourmet dinners and protecting me, shit dude what more could an omega ask for?!” 

You flinch, because the answer is glaringly obvious to you. “Dave, we aren’t compatible. I’m a troll, and you deserve someone of your own species.” 

“Really Karkat? Are you making the implication I think you’re making? You know not all of us have the insane biological drive to reproduce, I just happen to find the idea of you knotting me really fucking hot!” 

_Fuck_. He’s trying to kill you. 

“Dave, holy shit, can you even hear yourself? Don’t say that, fuck.” 

He pauses, and the sound he then makes is so desperately sad. “... So you don’t want me, then.” 

You look away, feeling caught. He’s not in the right state of mind right now and you’ll both be able to write all this off as that later. But whatever you say in this moment could change your entire friendship irreversibly. What if he crosses the threshold back to reality and remembers what he did, what you said? 

But right now he sounds so dejected, and you can’t hide it from him anymore. 

You step towards him, shaking your head. “I want you so badly it’s driving me wild,” you confess in a whisper. “I’ve been dreaming about courting you for so long now, and I don’t even remember when I started. But Dave, you’re just… You deserve better than what I can give you.” 

“You’re an idiot if you really think that,” he says, but the heaviness has left his scent and disposition. He’s smiling slyly at you, grinning even. “So you do want me.” 

You look at him and he’s tilting his head, tipping just from a regular angle into a gesture of submission. Dave is submitting to you. 

The alpha side is screaming to be let out so you can take the heating omega, fuck him to relief and make him _yours_. 

You look away from him, tips of your pointed ears turning red as you blush violently. Your lungs feel like they might be on fire. “Please, just, just go back to your room. I know you’re going to regret all this later.”

He groans. “Oh my fucking god, I can’t believe this. How did I forget I was dealing with the most thick alpha of them all. And I mean that in multiple definitions, but right now mostly I need to get it through your dense head that I want you to share my heat with me. Karkat, please knot me. _Please_.”

If he could only hear himself, goddammit. “Dave. Your room.” You include a growl behind the words. 

Dave scoffs. “Okay fine, daddy,” he mutters with a hiss of his own and walks back to his room, slamming the door. It sends a whoosh of his heat-scent cascading over the nutrition block that is strong enough to almost break you and send you running to his side. 

You whimper only when he’s gone and distract yourself by cleaning up the meal, but quickly find you can’t move without shaking thanks to the threatening rut swirling around in your body, so you force yourself to sit at the table with a book. 

You aren’t even reading the words, just holding it open with an unnecessarily strong grip. 

Your heart weighs heavily on you. Dave is going to be so embarrassed later when he realizes what he said to you. 

It definitely hasn’t been enough time for Dave to get lucid again when the door is thrown open. You look up from the page to see him, and your jaw drops when you do.

He’s completely naked. 

He’s completely naked and oh, god, he is literally trying to torture you, isn’t he. 

“I have literally spent,” he starts to say, a vicious tone in his voice, “The last half hour thinking about you breeding me, which is fucking stupid, because you are in the goddamn room right next to me. So if you aren’t going to believe that I want you, then I’m going to show you.” How is he even leaving his room when he’s in a state like this? 

He crosses the room to you, swaying as he walks, and you hear your heart in your ears. You can’t take your eyes off him. He’s lovely. His skin looks so soft and his dick is erect between his legs. 

Then he throws himself into your lap, straddling your legs as he fills the space with his scent and warmth and closeness. Your hands are lame at your sides, and even as you itch to touch him you force yourself not to. 

Except then you smell slick between his legs and lapse, because even if you can control your hands, you cannot control your bulge under the assault of Dave’s heat on your instincts. 

You lose power over your bulge and there is nothing you can do to stop it even if you tried, not when his body is sending every possible message begging you to fuck him. It’s growing in your pants, bringing you dangerously close to the tipping point of rut. 

It might be too late. Blood is pounding angrily away in your veins, you’re so restless you want to burst. 

Dave wraps his arms loosely around your neck. You don’t know where to look, your eyes mostly just staring at his face in shock. He’s seated directly on your crotch. There’s no way he can’t feel you under him. 

He groans. “Oh, fuck, Karkat, I can feel you, please please please give me your bulge, I’m begging you, I need you so badly.” His hands take fistfuls of your shirt. 

He’s getting slick on your pants and you just watch him open mouthed as he starts to grind down on you. He closes his eyes, tips his head back in submission and moans. You whine, bulge seeking stimulation and meeting with Dave on top of you. Your clothes are the only thing keeping your bulge from burying itself inside him. 

“Karkat, please, oh please I need you to believe me when I say I didn’t mean watch over me when I asked you to do this. I was a coward but now I’m not, okay? I don’t care that you’re a troll. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted and ever will want and I am going to court the shit out of you later but right now I feel so fucking empty and _I need you_.” 

“D-Dave, please…” you say, not opposed to begging at this point. You can feel your willpower crumbling below Dave grinding down on you, getting your pants wet. 

“Karkat,” he says, stilling. He looks into your eyes. “You said you wanted me. What’s holding you back?” It’s paired with a sad whine that strikes your chest. “I wasn’t wrong, was I? You weren’t just saying it?” 

Oh, no. Not this again. You can’t handle Dave being sad. You reach up and take ahold of his cheek. “Oh, Dave, you’ve got it all wrong. I… I did mean it. I would love to be your mate. But it’s just simple logic, I told you... You can do so much better than someone like me.”

He falls forward and presses his forehead against yours. “You really don’t see it, do you?”

“See what?” Your breath shudders out as you speak.

“That you are an honest to god eleven out of ten catch. Like meeting you was hitting the motherfucking jackpot, and I refuse to let you walk away because I don’t think I could deal with you being someone else’s.” His hands find your shoulders, squeezing them. “Have you really thought about it?” Dave says, words running into each other. He shudders over you, you think he might be hitting his second wave now. “Being my mate?”

Your breath catches at the idea that Dave feels possessive of _you_. “Of course,” you say. “All the time.”

Dave shivers. “Then I can’t believe that I’m sitting here on your lap naked and in heat and you aren’t doing anything about it.” You can’t believe he’s managed to leave his nest like this at all. He must be dying to get back to cover, but if you carry him back to his room there’s no way you’ll be able to leave. 

You snort, but the sound is forced. “Key word, in heat. You can’t consent.” 

He grinds down on you again and you almost yell, a strangled yelp leaving your throat. Your hands fly to his waist because you need to hold on, and now you’re touching him- soft, warm skin, parts of him you want to kiss. You don’t let go. 

Dave sighs happily, shivering under your touch. His body is humming like a struck tuning fork. “I can’t believe you. How did I possibly end up falling for the most obtuse bastard of them all.”

You open your mouth to protest but find that you can’t because Dave is pressing his warm lips against yours.

You’ve thought about doing this so many times. There’s no way he can’t feel the whirring in your throat now, especially as you breathe him in while his mouth covers yours. 

Because you’re weak, you kiss him back, and purr. 

You’re out of control. 

Dave makes a joyful sound as you kiss him. You let your hands tangle in his hair and hold his face as he kisses you. It feels like your heart might fly out of your chest. You’ve never felt this high before. 

He tastes so good. He tastes better than you could have ever dreamed. 

Finally he breaks away but doesn’t let you get far. “Please, Karkat, please,” Dave whispers against your lips. He cries out, keening like an omega in heat, and you feel yourself slipping. You reach for the last small bit of your sanity. 

“I… I…. Dave, I don’t want you to wake up and regret this.”

“I won’t.”

“You’re driving me insane,” you sigh into his mouth as you kiss him this time. A happy thrill is released from his throat. 

He pulls away and looks to the side, tilting his chin up as he does to bare his throat for you in submission and revealing the glands you’ve dreamed of sinking your teeth into. 

You have a lapful of the naked, slicking omega you’re in love with and he’s submitting to you while in heat and so you do the exact thing you were scared of doing. 

You break. 

You’ve gathered a naked Dave Strider in your arms and are on your way to deposit him in the nest, no, _your mating den_ , before you even realize what you’re doing. 

He did it. He broke you. 

He broke you, and you need to fuck him. You need to fill him and knot him to ease his heat and make everything better. You don’t care anymore for the consequences, nothing else matters except that Dave needs you and he needs you _now_. 

You carry him to the den where it’s dim and smells like heat and kneel onto the bed, letting him down carefully on his back. 

He lets go of you and whines when you pull away. You’re only trying to get out of your clothes, but Dave helps you, leaping forward to tear off your shirt and bring you back to his lips. You can’t really stop kissing him, and he’s crying out into your mouth, but you manage to pull off your pants without looking. You almost don’t get them off all the way.

Dave is already reaching for your bulge, thrashing away and searching for a place to bury itself. 

“Holy shit,” he says. “You’re huge.” 

Feeling his hand gripped around your base makes you shiver and you ache to be inside him already, but pause for a second in worry that he’s pushing the brakes.

“I didn’t say stop,” Dave snaps, reaching to pull you down over him. His body feels incredible, the sensation of his naked skin against yours indescribably pleasing. Your bulge is exploring and already half wrapped under his dick as it seeks the cavernous space troll omegas regularly have for breeding. 

Dave does not have that, he will be far tighter, but he does have slick. You barely even care now, you’re rutting and lost in the need to satisfy him. 

You’re going to do it. You’re going to knot Dave. 

You pull away from his mouth to adjust your position so you can enter him. It’s frantic now, the way Dave is grabbing for you body. 

“Oh, fuck _yes_ ,” Dave laugh-cries when he feels you first start to push inside him, throwing his head back against the pillow. He whines again, and the only thing you want to do is be completely inside him so you can make his pain disappear. 

You push down even further against him, he’s already loosened from his first wave. 

Dave cries out again as you shove to the bottom. “Please- fuck- I need you, ‘Kat.” He’s getting even further into the heat wave, grabbing and pulling for you to be closer, all the way inside him

“I’ve got you, Dave, it’s okay,” you whisper as you seat yourself to the base, where there is no knot yet but there will be very soon. He’s lost in it, fever sick with need and you can’t help it, you move one of the arms holding you up over his body so you can brush a hand through his hair. His skin is hot as could be.

As you work your bulge into your mate, fuck _Dave is your mate_ , you can only look at him in wonder as he channels all your rut aggression into depthless affection. You adore him. Your every molecule revolves around caring for the desperate omega in your arms and right now that means fucking Dave the way he deserves. 

It’s not the same as fucking another troll, not by a long shot. If Dave had been a troll, the muscles of the walls would be stroking the bulge, no thrusting needed on the alpha’s end- but that’s not the case here, humans don’t work like that, not until they come. You’ll have to thrust into Dave and fuck him like a human would. It’s not instinctual but you’ll do it. 

You just hope you’re enough for him, and you feel a flash of insecurity even through the settling haze of rut that the tapered bulge end won’t satisfy him. 

Then you hear Dave, “Fuck, Karkat, you’re perfect,” and you have to remind yourself to actually fuck him the way he needs- so you thrust into him. 

You kiss him again, swallowing his cries as he takes the bulge, and fuck, pushing up against how tight it is makes it enough, more than enough, and you can feel the knot coming, hips stuttering as you force yourself to fuck him uninstinctually. 

Dave seems to sense it and clutches to you. 

“Knot me, Karkat, please I wanna be yours, make me yours, do it, _do it_.” 

You don’t know if he can ever hear himself but the begging snaps you, the alpha within practically going feral with pride and possessiveness as your reach your breaking point. You thrust in once more and the knot swells, stretching and filling him in entirety. Dave yells, his nails digging into your back as he comes in your arms, a total writhing mess. He screams your name. You can’t stop though, not if you want to come, so you keep fucking him by thrusting just enough for his walls to squeeze your knot, grinding out your orgasm with his help. 

You need to come inside him so you can claim him. That’s when he’ll be yours. You think this because you’re not thinking clearly, it’s pure instinct that you must do this. The thought of Dave filled with your red tinted fluid was always a shameful dream but you don’t have the clarity to question what you’re doing now. 

He’s so tight, and as you force yourself into the pressure inside coupled with watching him come undone for you, you finally orgasm, filling Dave with your genetic matter as it leaves your bulge. It’s too much for him, you can feel some leaking out of him already. He must be so full, you hope it was full enough.

You come inside Dave and he groans as he takes the increased pressure inside him. His cries fade away into panting breaths and you feel your entire body shudder with satisfaction. 

Eventually you come to a stop over him, the genetic fluid fucked out of you and knot secure as could be. His eyes are closed and he’s breathing hard, but his face carries a sense of pure relief it didn’t have before. 

You’re both silent for a few seconds as Dave comes back to. 

You will be stuck inside him for a while now. Now that you finally came, you’re back in reality, more or less. 

You don’t know what you’ll do if Dave gains lucidity with your bulge inside him and is horrified, just like you worried would happen. 

Dave finally speaks and his voice is an attractive level of hoarse. “Wow I’ve never come that hard in my life ever, Karkat is your bulge magic or something,” he says, giving you a melty smile and sleepily blinking one eye open at you. 

You flush and wordlessly lean down to kiss his cheek, once, twice, but then he pulls you to his mouth in another claiming kiss. 

Your heart might burst out of your chest. You’re elated. 

Dave still wants you. You fucked him through a heat wave, knotted him full, and he looks pretty damn happy about it. 

“Think you’ll be ready for round two, hot stuff?” He teases when he pulls away. 

You flush hotly but laugh breathily. It’s almost hard to look at him straight on, even as you’re locked to his proximity for however long you still can’t believe it in the first place. “Yeah, with the way you’re smelling I will be. How are you feeling?”

He smiles and runs a hand down your back. “Fucking incredible, fuck I think you coming inside me is the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Your skin grows hotter as blood rushes to the surface. You let you head fall to the junction of his neck and shoulder, letting yourself take lungfuls of his scent as you come down together. “Me too,” you groan. You shift your hips just slightly and your bulge moves slightly inside him. Dave whines and grabs for you again, keeping you close to him. 

“When this is over I’m going to take you out to dinner,” you sigh. “If you would like that,” you addend, feeling the courage fade immediately. 

Dave squeezes you. “Of course I’d fucking like that. I’d more than like that.” He sighs. “I mean, this isn’t just a one and done, toot it and boot it alpha gig for you, is it? You meant it, right?”

Your eyebrows furrow. “... Meant what?”

“The uh, the part where you said you’d been wanting me for awhile.”

“Oh.” You’re so glad you’re not looking right at him, your face is on fire and you feel your heart rate kicking up. “Y-yeah. I sure fucking meant that.” 

Dave sighs happily. “Good, you kinda scared me for a little bit there.”

“Scared you?”

“Yeah I mean, it was kind of obvious you were into me but then I ask you to do this and shit’s like pulling teeth, dude. My poor heart can only take so much abuse and I’m havin’ the motherfucking heats. Kinda threw me for a loop when it seemed like you didn’t want to. Not gonna lie I didn’t need your parenting I just really needed your knot.” 

What he says does not help your blushing but you do laugh. “Only because you’re so out of my league in every considerable way, I still don’t even know why you ever wanted to get to know me. And who wouldn’t want you? You know I only thought that’s what you needed from me because I couldn’t believe you actually wanted me at all.” 

Dave snorts. “Well in case it wasn’t extremely obvious already I kind of want to make this a thing. I don’t want to just be ordering the Vantas heat special once a year, you know.” 

You pull back to gaze at him, and he just smiles lazily back at you, looking relaxed as could be. You sigh and kiss his forehead. “I think I can make that happen,” you murmur against this skin. 

“Okay well just saying you already have one missed wave to make up to me. That shit was torture.” 

Shit, he’s right. You can’t believe you weren’t there when he needed you… but in this moment you’re too blissed out to really berate yourself for it.

For now you have one job, and it’s to make it up to him by fucking Dave through the rest of his heat and taking the best care of him you possibly can.

Actually, it’s two jobs, because the second is to court him like crazy after. 

Dave pulls you back to his mouth, only kissing you after he’s whispered the words, “My mate,” against your lips. 

You don’t think you’ve ever felt happier in your life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't done with these two so I wrote this alpha Kat rut chapter plus some other stuff, enjoy

**DAVE**

The rest of the heat with Karkat is some level of bliss. He takes really good care of you, even if it takes some extra convincing that he’s who you actually want. He goes above and beyond with you, rarely leaves you in the bedroom alone, and it’s only after he’s fucked the heat out of you and your brains are scrambled eggs. 

When it finally dissipates, you both end up in your shower. Karkat holds you up against the shower wall, and at some moment he pulls away to gaze at you. “I need to be honest with you… You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this for, I still can’t believe it’s actually happening,” he sighs happily. The water feels so good on your body after that several-day-long-fuckstravaganza with your hunk of a troll, but his touch is still the best feeling. You grab his face and kiss him. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t think I wanted you.”

He frowns and looks away sheepishly. His hands squeeze your sides. “Dave I never thought I’d be someone who… God, this is so fucked up to say…. I never thought I’d see someone so happily knotted by me. I never thought they would see my red inside them and look so goddamn _happy_ about it.” You just keep grinning at him. The tips of his ears are bright red, it’s adorable. You think you know what moments it is he’s talking about, back from the thick of the heat. 

The two of you had talked after he first knotted you, enjoyed holding each other, kissed like you’d always wanted to. You remember the first time when his knot finally slipped out, and red fluid soaked your bed. You clung to Karkat, didn’t let him leave your side, even as apologies effusively left his mouth. 

“Karkat please, this is the hottest thing that has maybe ever happened to me, please just let me enjoy it.” You were immediately less coherent without his bulge inside you. _My alpha just came inside me,_ is all you really could think. You eventually let Karkat leave but only to get water. He just kept looking at you like he couldn’t believe it. 

Hopefully, soon he will. 

“...I still don’t even want to say it, because what if it isn’t real?” Karkat says.

“What isn’t?”

“That you’re…. My mate,” he whispers. 

“Well uh. I’m pretty sure I am. I mean, that’s what we said, right?”

Karkat smiles and pulls you back to him. “You’re my mate,” he sighs happily. “... fuck that feels good to say.”

You chuckle and squeeze him. “Don’t wear it out,” you tease.

He smiles and kisses your cheek. “I won’t.” 

-

**KARKAT**

You’ve met some of Dave’s family and pack before. 

However, meeting his brother under the context of you now being his mate is a whole other story. 

You can feel his ice cold gaze under his shades as you two size each other up. Dave stands to the side anxiously and starts talking when Dirk opens his mouth. 

“Dirk-- Dirk, come on, no shovel talk, we talked about this--” 

“Hey Karkat, wanna see my sword collection?”

“God fucking dammit.” 

Another one you meet, Roxy, pulls you aside one day. 

“Okay, you seem pretty cool, so I’ll go easy on you right now, but seriously, if you ever hurt Dave, I will chop off your bulge. Understood?” 

Meeting Jade, the other alpha in his pack, is a matter of her grinning at you and bouncing her foot for what feels like ages while you stare back, eventually cocking an eyebrow when she suddenly grins. Her face turns to Dave. “I think I like him. Nice catch, Dave.” 

In retrospect, Dave meeting some of your pack is an exercise in humiliation. No one you know has any tact at all. 

“Oh my god, you’re actually real? Karkat didn’t pay you to show up?” 

“Ugh, come one Vriska, just open the fucking door.” 

She cackles, but later when the night gets rowdier, you almost punch someone in the face. 

“So what’s it like banging an alpha of another species, Dave?” Nepeta asks, sounding so innocent and perky as she always does when you know what’s actually going on. You growl a warning and she sticks her tongue out at you. 

“I imagine the, ahem, size difference for a human might be… monumental,” Equius comments beside her, and you scoff while turning uncontrollably red. 

“Are you guys for fucking real right now?” You groan. 

The shade of Dave’s face matches your own, and you’re not sure you could blame the alcohol on that one. His grinning answer has you swelling with silent pride, though. 

“Not gonna lie, it’s pretty fucking awesome,” Dave stumbles. You both exchange grins. Silently you tug him to your body with one arm over his shoulder, rousing a drawn out ‘awwwww’ from Nepeta. 

“Karkat actually found a mate? Holy shit! I think Eridan owes me twenty bucks.” 

You’re not sure who you’re even more annoyed with by the end of the night, but everyone loves Dave, and that leaves you more pleased than anything. 

**DAVE**

Three months of courting Karkat pass. Everything changes while nothing does; you still work together sometimes, and the nights you do you end up staying with him. 

“Hey,” Karkat says to you when he answers the door. 

“Hey,” you say back, just as breathless and just as… loving. _In love_. 

Every time he guides you back into his apartment and instead of taking you immediately to the office he wraps you in his arms and holds you for a minute. You love it- the greeting, the reaching equilibrium as you both get a read of each other’s state, and you his presence, his scent. 

Karkat makes you feel safe. He also is far more doting than ever before. He spends more money on meals and doesn’t let you pay. 

“Hey, who’s the starving graphic designer artist in the room,” he teases. 

You give in, because you kind of like how good of care he takes with you. 

You get even closer.

Finally, you decide you’re ready.

You finally tell Karkat about Bro. 

It happens in the dark, in bed, in his arms, secure as could be but part of you still so pathetically scared. You feel the rage radiating off of him, but his embrace is safe and steady. 

“No one will ever hurt you like that again,” he promises. You believe him. You feel the truth of it. You know he’ll always be there for you. He’s your alpha. He’s your mate.

-

A month later, Karkat is hiding something from you. 

When you ask him about upcoming plans for the next few weekends he gets shifty.

Then some alpha elbows you in the street and you swear Karkat was about to punch their lights out. 

“Pissy much?” You tease him later. He just grunts unhappily. 

This all makes you suspicious that something might actually be wrong between you two, until you go sniffing for an explanation and the real answer slaps you in the face. 

TG: hey so  
TG: question  
TG: and i know this is kind of unconventional and you can totally say no to answering this question  
TA: let me gue22, karkat ii2 beiing extra level2 of a22hole lately  
TG: wow uh  
TG: spot on sort of  
TG: how did you know i was gonna ask that  
TA: becau2e unliike you iim not a complete dumba22  
TA: but iim al2o a troll  
TA: 2o here2 the 2auce  
TA: it2 troll ruttiing 2ea2on  
TA: diid you forget two mark that on your calendar  
TG: holy fuck  
TG: thats right  
TG: but then why isnt karkat talking to me about it  
TG: i totally wouldnt be coming to you unless i was sure there was some cross species thing i was missing  
TG: and doctor google is being really unhelpful with trying to diagnose my boyfriends periods  
TA: lii2ten dave  
TA: troll rut2 aren’t liike human2  
TA: we’re liiterally not made of the 2ame stuff  
TA: knowing hiim he probably ju2t doe2nt want to hurt you  
TG: wait  
TG: okay  
TG: theoretically metaphorically speaking  
TG: youre basically saying  
TG: karkat doesnt want to rut with me  
TA: oh my fuckiing god dont tell me you are a2 much an iin2ecure iidiiot a2 he ii2  
TA: iim not iintere2ted iin thii2 juveniile game of telephone  
TA: just go talk to your 2tupiid mate  
TG: okay  
TG: thanks sollux youre the realest and also lets never speak of this again  
TA: you got iit dude

“So when were you gonna tell me it was season,” you say to him later over dinner. 

Karkat puts down his fork and avoids your gaze. “Ah, fuck.”

You hold you arms out. “What the fuck, dude? I kinda feel like that was some shit I kind of deserve to know. I mean like, unless you didn’t want me to know which like, yeah that kind of sucks, because--”

“Dave, fuck, no it’s not that.” He looks away from you and runs a hand through his hair anxiously. 

You just frown at him, really frown at him, and Karkat exhales heavily before getting to his feet. He pulls you to standing, wrapping you in his arms. You feel immediately stabilized, but still kind of hurt. 

“It’s not that. I just…”

“...You just? What, dude?” He can hear the hurt in your voice and it makes him wilt a little. 

He sighs. “I don’t… I don’t want to hurt you.”

Well, shit. His beta really was telling the truth. You don’t say anything, but you’re still frowning. You would have rather gotten this from him than anyone else. 

“Dave you are so fucking important to me, but when trolls rut it’s not like humans, we get… we get more intense. A lot more intense. And I... ”

You understand now. You know what he’s worried about. He’s thinking about what you told him, about you and alphas and Bro, and fuck maybe you shouldn’t have told him? 

“If I would have known you were going to treat me like glass I wouldn’t have told you about what happened with Bro.” 

His arms are still steady around you even as the rest of him tenses unhappily. “ _No_. You should have told me. I will never let anything happen to you like that ever again.” 

“Yeah well by not giving me a say in this you kind of are.” 

He’s silent. You both don’t say anything for a few long moments, even if you’re both kind of upset with each other. 

“You wouldn’t hurt me,” you finally say, knowing it to your core. 

“Oh yeah? And you know that how?” 

“Because you’re you. And also because seeing you go into alpha troll mode sounds hot as fuck.”

You notice him still. He knows now about what happened with Bro, you know he must be thinking about it, worrying it over. 

“Karkat I’m your mate and I’m not some delicate O-type that can’t take a solid pounding. I can handle your rut and I want to. Throw whatever at me, dish it out man, I know I can take it.” He looks away from you. You sigh and lean towards his face so you can kiss him softly. “I want it,” you say. “I know it’s not the same.”

“I don’t want to be like--”

“You won’t,” you reassure him. He holds you even more tightly to his chest. You feel like something precious to him. 

“What if I’m too pushy with you?”

“You won’t.” 

He huffs but relaxes a little. 

“Please? Let me… Karkat c’mon. You took care of me. Let me take care of you.” 

His expression turns consternated. “But--” 

“ _As your mate_.”

He freezes, and you know you’ve got his ticket now. You double down on this opening. 

“Karkat, no offense, actually full offense, fuck you, kind of a dick move to leave your mate out of your rut.” 

That seems to catch him. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Okay, fine,” he agrees. “But you have to tell me if it’s too much. In fact you have my full permission to punch me in the face if I so much as breathe in the wrong direction with you.” 

You just grin at him. “Deal.”

-

A week later, Karkat doesn’t respond to your messages as you head over to his place, but when you knock on the door it’s opened instantly.

Karkat is on you immediately, quicker than usual, shepherding you in. Then he shuts the door, locks it, and _marks_ it. 

Oh shit, this can only mean one thing. 

Your mate is in rut. You don’t even have time to set your stuff down because Karkat is already wrapping his arms around you and burying his nose in your neck, getting a sense of your state through what instinct deems enough. 

He growls and fuck, Karkat growling at you, that’s hot, that’s really hot. 

But then you realize why he’s growling. He smells something on you. 

You’re an idiot. You saw Jade today, and she hugged you like she always does when you see her, and Karkat can smell it. 

He doesn’t care right now that she’s your pack, he can’t tell the difference, all he can smell is _foreign alpha, all over my mate_ , and yeah you might just be about to experience scary alpha troll terroritality. 

He must be even more on edge because you haven’t mate-bit him yet, and so he knows you don’t smell taken. 

Karkat picks you up and you let him do it. He carries you to the bedroom and sets you on the bed. You can kind of feel them, the very low bass-like purring sound he produces around you that is a troll signal. It’s kind of hot, the way Karkat is primally reverting to his most basic instincts to make his mate secure. You can’t help but smile fondly at him as you kick off your shoes. 

He strips off his shirt, revealing all the glorious smooth grey under, and then he gets on the bed curling up around you. 

He rubs his forehead against you, basically nuzzling you, and you love how immediately warm and comfortable you feel. It takes a little bit of shuffling, but you both eventually get under the covers, and Karkat has you in his arms immediately. 

“Hey, Karkat,” you say, as a greeting. He makes a small growling noise that also makes your stomach flip. 

You feel so safe and warm, wrapped up in the bed that smells like both you and Karkat but mostly of _your alpha in rut_ and you wonder which part of that is the close proximity of his pheromones affecting you or if you are just really comfy. You wonder if it’s enough to trigger a heat in you, so soon after one already. 

It would be great if your heats and ruts were to synch up already, but you two hadn’t been together long enough. One day, though, that’s for sure. 

A few minutes pass like this, just happily laying together, but it wasn’t ever going to just stay so innocent. 

Karkat whines in your ear and gently grinds up against your leg. Fuck, that’s hot. Is he asking? It’s such a needy sound. Holy shit this is really turning you on. You can feel yourself growing slick, a combination of the rut-scent and just your own horniness for your mate. 

“Karkat,” you rasp, and he just buries his face in your shoulder, whining lowly. 

Something about this is just so goddamn cute. Maybe it’s the way his rut has melted him down to all his most basic components, just for you and only you. He’d snap another person’s neck in this state. 

You feel his bulge in his pants along your leg. “That’s my alpha,” you whisper, and he grinds against you once more with a small yowl. Suddenly he stops. 

“Can’t--” he pants, pulling away from you. “I can’t do this, fuck.” You frown as the pressure of him against your side disappears. 

You wiggle around to face him and grab his face, making him look into your eyes. 

His look wild as they gaze back into yours. He must want you so badly. You think of the desperation for him you had during your heat. 

“Karkat, let me take care of you. Tell me what you want.” 

He grabs you, shoving his face into your neck. “You,” he growls into your skin. You love how he feels against you. “But I don’t…” He whines again to imply his statement. 

You slip one hand down to ghost over the front of his pants. He hisses and you just grin, thinking to yourself all the ways that will get him to break the fastest. 

“I know you want to fuck me,” you whisper. “Come on, alpha. Take me.” 

He whimpers, restraint just beginning to crack. You are eager to see the process along, even if a small part of you does feel a little scared.

“It’s just us here, I’m safe, and there’s just one more thing left you have to do.” 

“Dave, fuck, you’re driving me crazy,” he says, with all of his few functioning neurons he must have left that aren’t running on alpha hormones. 

“Stop fighting it,” you encourage, pulling him to your face to kiss you. He kisses back, and fuck, you love this. 

“I want you,” you murmur into his mouth. 

“Okay,” he gasps, pulling away for a second. “Okay, fuck, okay.” 

He pushes the covers off and you both set about getting each other unclothed. It’s all just urgency now. 

When you finally get him out of his pants your hand is on his bulge immediately. He thrusts into your hands unthinkingly and growls into your mouth. 

“I need to be inside you,” he says, not entirely a question but still half asking permission. 

Fuck, that’s hot. “ _Please_ ,” you say, almost launching into a string of salacious begging, but he cuts you off because he’s already pushing his bulge inside of you. 

You’re both so wet together, but you think it makes it even better. You’re slick but tight. The friction of him pushing in, filling you, is incredible. He buries himself inside you and kisses you again as he growls and pulls out. 

You wonder if it would feel better for him if you were a troll. 

Well, maybe a human would feel better for you. But you don’t care. You both had insecurity about your relative incompatibility. But when you told Karkat, he laughed because he didn’t think you were anything less than perfect for him. That was pretty sweet.

Maybe a human would naturally feel better for you… but you don’t care, either. Karkat is perfect for you. He fucks you hard enough that you’re quite certain you aren’t missing out on anything, either. 

All parties seem to end up pretty happy with this arrangement. 

He fills you with his bulge and pulls away, pushing back in the way that drives you both wild. 

“Mine,” he whispers into your neck. 

This is so hot you think you might die. You’re not even heating and Karkat’s rabid to claim and call you his. You want to be full of him as much as he wants to fill you. 

All you can do is clutch to him while he fucks you with primal need, his face tucked into the space between your shoulder and neck. 

It makes you think about something that hasn’t really come up yet. To be honest it’s more like you and Karkat have danced around the subject. 

“What if I bit you,” you wheeze, like a little shit.

Karkat actually goes entirely still, a shudder running along him. “What?”

“You heard me.”

He growls and looks at your face. “Don’t joke about that. Fucking… not right now, please.”

You grin slyly at him. “Don’t try and tell me you don’t want it.”

He thrusts once roughly, making you gasp. “ _Of course I fucking want it_.” It comes out in a throaty response. “I want _you_. You’re… you’re mine, Dave.” 

You wonder if he would have admitted it outside of rut. He’s just so hesitant to admit that he’s yours. Half because he still doesn’t believe it, half because he doesn’t want to be overbearing as an alpha. If only he weren’t so thick, in more than one way. Karkat would see he’s the only one you want that treatment from. With him, the alpha drives are downright mind-bendingly sexy. 

On second thought, maybe it was kind of cruel to tease biting him, plus if you did bite him and he hit you back outside of heat it would hurt like hell. There’s a reason most mates end up doing it after a few years, after cycles have synced. It’s not necessarily a painless operation. But damn if that impulse to biologically put a ring on it doesn’t feel just as strong as you’d imagine it would feel during heat. 

You just want to belong to Karkat. You want him to belong to you. 

You tilt your head up and place your mouth on Karkat’s neck, gently nipping. A tease.

”Yours,” you murmur. 

This is finally, finally what snaps him. 

He goes feral, pace falling irregular for a second before falling back into being powerfully measured. You fall back to the bed with a gasp as he fucks you. Hard. Fuck that feels good. You say something to that effect, but it’s garbled between thrusts. He's holding you hard enough to bruise, but it's a good pain. Maybe this is what he was worried about, but all it does is turn you on more.

“Dave, fuck, I’m gonna…”

He tries pulling away but you lock to him. “Don’t you fucking dare, I don’t care if I’m not in heat fucking _knot me._ ”

Then he’s shoving in you and the knot grows against your walls and your cuss and scratch at him in the pleasure-pain of the sensation. You think Karkat may have been growling through the whole thing, which is something that will never stop being hot. 

It is a lot more than when you are in heat, and far more painful than you were expecting. You don’t care. 

Once he’s released inside you he comes to a stop. Immediately, he’s pressing small apologetic kisses to your face. 

You can tell he feels bad, even through the rut. So you pull him in for a kiss and he relaxes, taking you into his arms and rolling you both onto the side. The growls from when he was fucking you have faded to something soft and comforting, small whines and purrs as he holds you. 

Honestly, all you feel is cozy and warm, nothing like the mind numbing heats you usually have. You feel so nice wrapped up in Karkat’s sturdy arms, happy as could be on his knot. He keeps kissing your face, lovingly as he can. 

You love him like this. You don’t know what either of you were ever worried about. He’s your big, loving, horny and protective alpha. What a dope. 

He groans throatily as you shift your leg around him, causing his knot to catch pleasantly on your walls. 

“Karkat, fuck.” It’s so much when you’re not in heat, but it feels so good. He feels so _right_.

He kisses you again, hungrily, and your body throbs with how much you love him, how good he makes you feel. 

You kiss like that for a little while, slowing in intensity unless he pulls away to breath.

Something settles in between you, euphoric but also… tentative. 

You realize that you… Yeah. You might have said some things they need to be addressed. 

“Did you,” he says, his voice low and husky. “Did you mean what you said? About…”

“Yeah,” you respond. “I did.”

He smiles at you. 

“I… I love you, Karkat.” 

Then he’s looking at you very intensely. “What did you say?” It’s almost like you sobered him out of rut for a second.

You just grin lazily. “I said I love you. I said I wanted to bite you, too. That shouldn’t be a surprise.” 

His mouth is on yours again. “I love you too, Dave, oh, _Dave_.” 

You’ll talk about it later, but right now, all there is to do is lay satisfied in your mate’s arms.


End file.
